THE JUNGLE JAZZ BAND
FEAT. NICOLLE ROCHELLE

The Jungle Jazz Band and Nicolle Rochelle: a journey into the heart of traditional Jazz and artistic expression

The Jungle Jazz Band is a traditional Jazz group made up of six young musicians from various backgrounds living in Berlin. They all share the same, consuming passion for early Jazz, the kind born in New Orleans in the early 20th century. The band often collaborates with renowned New Orleans musicians and is one of the most popular Hot Jazz ensembles in Europe. The group resurrects the original, rough and powerful sound of the early Jazz era, when music was meant to be hot, fun and danceable, drawing from great composers such as Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, Bix Beiderbecke and Sidney Bechet. The Jungle Jazz Band last year was a resounding success at JazzAscona accompanying the great New Orleans singer Meschiya Lake.

This year we will see the sextet again with Nicolle Rochelle, aka Nikki, an eclectic singer, dancer, actress and women’s rights activist, who after a career on Broadway achieved European success in 2006 as Josephine Baker in Jerome Savary’s play “A la recherche de Joséphine.” Since then, Nicolle has performed as a singer all over the world (including at JazzAscona, paired with Julien Brunetaud), ranging from Jazz to blues, R&B, and hip-hop with her latest musical project “Modern GEAIsha,” An all-around artist whose passion for the arts also extends to dance, which she continues to study, practice, and teach in a multitude of styles.